A new “black alert” system for GP practices across the country could see patients diverted away if a surgery becomes overwhelmed, under new plans by a top Derbyshire doctor.

Dr Peter Holden called on the British Medical Association to create a system that will allow practices to signal when high demand is reaching a “crisis” point.

Delegates voted overwhelmingly in favour of the idea which will send patients to places like walk-in centres and A&E when the black alert is activated.

Dr Holden, who jumped to action to help victims on the ground at the 2005 London bombings, said the system would fall in line with that which hospitals already use. The Matlock doctor added: “This is vital in order for GPs to stratify their capacity and stratify their response to maintain safe systems and care.

Dr Peter Holden, of Matlock in Derbyshire, put the idea to the British Medical Association and won overwhelming support.

"This will then give GPs a defence of the General Medical Council (GMC) as, so often, complaints about a GP are not the result of personal or professional deficiency but system failings outside of their control."

Dr Holden said the new system may have to go ahead without the help of Government as he believes it is unwilling to admit healthcare deficiencies.

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He said: “I suspect we will have to do this as an association as the chance of Government introducing any measurement which could highlight their chronic under-resourcing of the services is remote.

“We owe it to ourselves and the colleagues who have faced GMC investigations against them, purely because of mistakes which are fundamentally based in gross work overload.”

The 'black alert' system would bring GPs in line with a similar protocol already used by hospitals.

Dr Richard Vautrey – who will become acting chairman of the union’s General Practice Committee later this week – said the measure would give GPs a “pressure valve”.

He said: “In some areas, there have been hubs developed for urgent care that provide that pressure valve so, if you've got a practice that is struggling, that would give them the ability to send out a message to the local health economy saying: 'We're really struggling - can somebody help'.”

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Dr Vautrey said the current system puts patients in a situation where they are seeing doctors who, due to extremely high levels of demand, may not be at their best.

He said: “If you are that final patient of 60 or 70 in a day then, actually, you aren't getting a very good service.

"While you might be seeing a doctor, you will be seeing a very tired doctor who is not able to think as well as they were able to when they were seeing the first in the morning.”

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A Department of Health spokeswoman said: "We recruited the highest number of GP trainees ever in 2016.

“But, crucially, we are giving GPs the financial backing to support improvements in patient care, with a £2.4 billion increase in funding, so we expect them to deliver for the public."

How did Dr Peter Holden help victims of the 2005 London bombings?

Dr Holden was in London for a meeting on July 7, 2005, when a bomb detonated in a double decker bus, claiming thirteen lives.

He had been at the British Medical Association House with a team of doctors when the bomb went off outside. In 2011, he told an inquest into the tragedy how he recalled hearing the explosion.

A passer-by lays flowers along with other tributes near the site of the London bus bombing on July 11, 2005. (Image: Ian Nicholson/PA)

He said: "Essentially, we heard a loud bang. I do remember everything going salmon pink at just about the same time and, in the main office, some of the staff beginning to make a lot of commotion and I came out of the office and could see the white smoke and the tree canopy gone."

The GP said he took a "large breath in" as he and other doctors looked out of a window at the horrific sight – but he was worried about the impact on his colleagues.